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The asteroid Dimorphos is bear in unexpected ways after being reach with aNASArocket last year , new information propose .
Recent observations of the roughly 580 - foot - wide ( 177 metre ) distance rock — which NASAintentionally go down a starship intoon Sept. 26 , 2022 , as part of the Double Asteroid Redirection Test ( DART ) mission — show that Dimorphos may be tumble in its usually unbendable orbit around its parent asteroid Didymos , accord toNew Scientist . Dimorphos also appeared to be continuously slowing down in its orbit for at least a month after the rocket impingement , contrary to NASA ’s prediction .
NASA’s DART at the Didymos System.
California high school instructor Jonathan Swift and his students first detected these unexpected change while observing Dimorphos with their schoolhouse ’s 2.3 - foot ( 0.7 meter ) telescope last fall . Several weeks after the DART impingement , NASA announced that Dimorphos had slowed in its orbit around Didymos by about 33 minutes . However , when Swift and his students canvas Dimorphos one month after the impact , theasteroidseemed to have slow by an extra minute of arc — suggest it had been slow continuously since the collision .
" The number we start was slimly larger , a change of 34 minutes , " Swift evidence New Scientist . " That was discrepant at an uncomfortable level . "
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Swift give his class ’s findings at the American Astronomical Society conference in June . The DART team has since confirm that Dimorphos did indeed go forward slow in its orbit up to a month after the impingement — however , their calculations show an additional slowdown of 15 seconds , rather than a full moment . A month after the DART collision , the retardation plateaued .
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What make Dimorphos to slow steady for a calendar month , before reaching chemical equilibrium ? A swarm of space rock could be to fault : Recent observations of the asteroid have revealed avast field of Boulder — in all likelihood shaken loose from Dimorphos ' surface during the impact — strewn about the area . It ’s possible that some of the declamatory boulders fall back onto Dimorphos within that first month , slow its orbit further than anticipated , DART squad memberHarrison Agrusatold New Scientist .
The DART team plan to free its own report on the unexpected findings in the come weeks . However , terminated answers may have to wait until 2026 , when theEuropean Space Agency ’s Hera space vehicle is schedule to arrive at Dimorphos to enquire the cosmic crash site up close .
